Weather News

Floods still taking toll on PNG highlands

There have been more deaths caused by recent flooding in Papua New Guinea's highlands region.

Local newspapers have reported a mother and a child in Paipa village in the Southern Highlands province died from starvation last week.

NBC Radio says another woman in Tumbalere village died because she could not get to the local health clinic to get necessary medication after a bridge was washed away.

They are the latest casualties from flooding earlier this month that has washed away bridges, caused landslides and left tens of thousands of people isolated.

The PNG government has committed more than $6 million to the disaster, but local authorities in the Southern Highlands say only $200,000 of that is for emergency supplies and that is nowhere near enough.